Please Remove the Inactivity Timer

[Giruvegan]

I feel like at this stage of the game, we really need to rethink the inactivity timer for housing. To be honest, I was completely against this idea being implemented in the first place but, I'm asking now that it has for it to be removed. It's not stopping people from owning multiple plots, the overcrowding, or the lack of enough to go around in the first place.

Can we please get rid of the timer? or is this something that we're all used to now and something that still gives others a slightly higher than abysmal chance at owning a plot?

[Kenky]

Common misconceptions

"The Inactivity Timer is meant to stop people owning several plots"
Wrong, but only by a technicality standpoint. The Inactivity timer was not meant to discourage or punish / penalize people having multiple plots. Just ensuring that they need to enter every plot once every month to maintain ownership. The timer itself originally was to ensure that, regardless of the player fluctuation, That there would still be availability On top of that, players that own multiple plots are from before the housing rework. Meaning they got those houses legitimately and played by the rules and systems they had at the time. SE can't do anything about it, as it would be deemed unfair for them to rip the houses the players earned away from them. No exceptions.

"The Inactivity timer is meant to stop overcrowding"
That's OUR fault, not SEs. They've tried time and time again to get us to spread out and, frankly, we just spit in their face. Nothing much can be done when people are stubborn.

"Housing is for everyone"
Also wrong. While yes, everyone deserves the right to have a go at housing, not everyone is going to GET a housing plot. The Housing Plots need to remain a finite resource in order to keep a demand. If everyone could get one, then there goes a major gil-sink for the game. It's doing its job. What people seem to enjoy ignoring is the apartments out there for people to own a house.

And before anyone says "Apartments aren't houses" or they're not proper instanced housing? Stop being picky. Yeah, you may not get every system with an apartment, but apartments don't auto-demo, they're permanent and about 3/4 the size of a Small (interior at least). For the price you're asked for its purchase, it's a pretty great deal. For everything else, just join an FC and get permissions to grow / water plants. Boom. There you go. All of the systems at your disposal.

[Vidu]

Its not only something I'm used to, its something I actually like and wanted. Despite owning a house and having no intentions of trying to own more than one (plus FC-house).

...or maybe because I own a house. You might ask "But why?", so let me explain:
The sad truth is that people simply stop playing the game, for whatever reason - they lost intrest or the means to play, they dont have time anymore or found another game. It doesnt matter, the point is: They're gone for good. They're not taking a few months-break, they're not coming back, at least not in the foreseeable future. And their homes... they sit there. Sometimes even undecorated, just empty plots. But even if someone bothered at somepoint to put some furniture up, they wont do it again, they wont use the house - the house is as dead as their sub. And thats honestly a sad sight. I found it to be a sad sight even when lots of housing was still available. My old FC used to own a house in Mist and there was another one across the street, owned by a very small FC, nothing done with the garden or any of it. We never saw anyone around and it became very clear to us that those people stopped playing for good. And we used to talk about how nice it would be if the house would get removed from them and purchased by someone who'd actually do something with it.

Maybe the timer could be a little longer - 3 months instead of 1,5, I could get behind that. But the idea was never to take homes from people with multiple plots (how does the timer even achieve that? Someone who cares enough about housing will care enough to keep them all from being demolished) or to provide housing for everyone. It was meant to ensure we dont end up with literal ghost towns - yes, I know that wards already seem empty and dead, but that only gets worse when half the plots are owned by people long gone.

Long story shot: The timer needs to stay and does what its supposed to: Making sure that plots arent being owned by people who left the game.

[Gula]

Absolutely no.

If Lance McFlake bought a house for the sheer novelty, then decided he didn't like decorating or XIV anymore... then that house is just sitting there unwanted while hundreds of NA players are stuck with just apartments and don't have a chance at it. It's empty, it's not going to be used, it's just... there. When there's a high demand in the west.

I decided to visit Mana to see what was going on with JP decorating, and there's dozens of plots on minimum devaluation just ripe to be taken. But then one faces the problem of being on a data center with no friends, none of their gil and where they can't communicate outside of auto translate provided the JP player base would take the time out to also use it. Which in the heat of a dungeon or trail isn't very effective. So alas, just moving to JP isn't a viable option.

[Shougun]

Due to the limited state of the wards and the purpose of the neighborhood system I think it would be unwise to remove the inactivity timer.. However I do think your house should go into an instanced space (with your whole house, inside and out) rather than losing the house. You'd lose your place in the ward but not your house, because their purpose is defeated by inactive houses.

"Housing is for everyone"
Also wrong. While yes, everyone deserves the right to have a go at housing, not everyone is going to GET a housing plot.

It should be (for everyone, strongly imo). Like Wildstar- the best mmo housing I've ever seen and probably the sole reason it lasted as long as it did, also imo lol, but other mmorpgs do this too- even WoW, though technically the ability to customize is significantly lower in WoW compared to FFXIV..

Though I do believe FFXIV might find a way to give everyone a space, a large space (given time/upgrades) even, and add another gil sink opportunity while still dodge changing the housing system in the idea of basically making an airship Garrison (WoW's house, which is more of a node based concept with a few slots to "decorate"). Since they're nodes it would take a lot less information (than a house, even compared to an apartment), and would be useful to both housing owners and not. As well it seems your point on people not decorating them could be addressed in the idea that the node is more of an auto decorate feature, like in skyrim where you buy a theme and it does the rest for you.

The Housing Plots need to remain a finite resource in order to keep a demand. If everyone could get one, then there goes a major gil-sink for the game. It's doing its job. What people seem to enjoy ignoring is the apartments out there for people to own a house.

A major gil sink would not go away, it's possible it wouldn't even be reduced and might (should..) even grow (though it wouldn't vanish entirely either way). If SE has a shirt that is rare ex (can't be sold or traded) and they limit the shirt to 500 a month (or total even) they've reduced their own gil sink (assuming demand is high, supply limited and fixed, non-trade able/sell-able, and price is fixed- in that scenario you'd want to produce more shirts to sell more of them because people want to buy it). Allow everyone to buy the shirt, the gil sink will be greater. People want a house to want a house, want a shirt to wear a shirt, get a mount to have that mount. Now there is the whole price reduction (devaluation) over time mechanic, so technically you'd need more people buying then lost by going around that system (assuming devaluation prices are ignored, if devaluation price mechanic is maintained somehow then the gil sink is definitely going to be stronger). Also the more people in the housing system potentially more people buying from the market, meaning a larger gil sink (because there are taxes on the market board). So it's entirely possible your gil sink becomes much larger. Not only that but more people who can buy seasonal items off the mogshop meaning more money for FF.

And before anyone says "Apartments aren't houses" or they're not proper instanced housing? Stop being picky. Yeah, you may not get every system with an apartment, but apartments don't auto-demo, they're permanent and about 3/4 the size of a Small (interior at least). For the price you're asked for its purchase, it's a pretty great deal. For everything else, just join an FC and get permissions to grow / water plants. Boom. There you go. All of the systems at your disposal.

Apartments are not houses, in the context of features, and as you detail later in your own post (showing that there are differences, they're not the same). Also no I wont stop calling them that way or allowing/defending people to be picky about it, at least until more is added to the feature set which very well may be coming. People are allowed to push SE to improve their housing system, which is where of the desires to make instanced house(s) come from. People are not required to be satisfied with a system, though of course they shouldn't be threatening/yelling SE- just letting them know they're not happy with X. You're allowed to leave of course but should avoid dangling the sub like it's a blackmail tool, rather just say "I'm leaving because I found X game which did this, I liked Y, and may come back if Z improves"- which while annoying to players who will just say "can I have your gil?" or shrug it is important info for SE to see where hiccups may be found. Of course vs "I'm going to keep playing but the entire time I play I'm going to threaten my sub like we're in an abusive relationship". That's the point anyways, of the forums, to leave feedback.

It's true the apartment wont demolish but none of the houses in FFXIV should demolish (given an instanced full feature house system like other mmos employ, wards can remain limited), though to Vidu's point they should be moved off the open ward system and into their own instanced space if they're not used after a certain amount of time (to keep the ward alive). I would like to protect the wards for people who like them, though their existence is not really important to me personally when discussing optimal housing experience as I visit the wards every day and have yet to have an experience worth enough to defend the costs it brings. Like the lack of upgrade-able choices (SE can't easily give people larger yards), sharing space requiring limited number of objects, dealing with other people's weird decorations lol, etc.

[Edax]

It's not stopping people from owning multiple plots, the overcrowding, or the lack of enough to go around in the first place.
Can we please get rid of the timer?

If the demo timer is taking houses away from players, then it absolutely is preventing people from owning multiple plots. Evidenced by this guy who came on the forums whining for 37 pages when one of his homes was taken away because he couldn't be bothered to enter it in 45 days.

With one week notice my house was removed in 30 day after not entering house. I sit on my front area daily and now they started this demolition to help ppl that not have housing and not notifying anyone in game that they going to do it. In FFXIV you get in game notices for everything close to completing and not for destroying your house? It make no sense. That needs to change. I want to start a Union to all those who lost housing to to this rule that is not fair and does not provide in game notice. All who feel the same make it known here.

The only thing homeless is your mind. I have more than one home. As I stated, you comment only to be a troll thus your mind is homeless like one.

[Alyanna_Elingval]

I feel like at this stage of the game, we really need to rethink the inactivity timer for housing. To be honest, I was completely against this idea being implemented in the first place but, I'm asking now that it has for it to be removed. It's not stopping people from owning multiple plots, the overcrowding, or the lack of enough to go around in the first place.

Can we please get rid of the timer? or is this something that we're all used to now and something that still gives others a slightly higher than abysmal chance at owning a plot?

Why would they do that? If someone quits the game you just want their house sitting there abandoned, never to be occupied again? You're just further reducing supply and the chances and getting a home with this.

[Elamys]

The Housing Plots need to remain a finite resource in order to keep a demand. If everyone could get one, then there goes a major gil-sink for the game. It's doing its job. What people seem to enjoy ignoring is the apartments out there for people to own a house.

Having finite plots actually makes housing an extremely inefficient gil sink. Especially since it's the only gil sink in the game.

When all the plots are used up, how else is that gil being removed from circulation? People won't stop buying housing in the game if it was accessible to everyone, they just wouldn't buy it for as much - and right now, that extra gil they're spending due to demand isn't going to the server and being removed from the economy, it's going to another player; ergo, it's not an actual gil sink.

[Wyvernheart]

It would be better to have the timer focus on a inactive subscription, not the way it is now. I know someone who would hang outside his house everyday, yet he lost it because he didn't enter it.

Please change it to an inactive subscription timer.

[Alyanna_Elingval]

It would be better to have the timer focus on a inactive subscription, not the way it is now. I know someone who would hang outside his house everyday, yet he lost it because he didn't enter it.

Please change it to an inactive subscription timer.

He hung outside his house for a month and a half and never went it? Never saw the messages that popped up when he logged in, and never saw any of the emails they sent him? I had to go overseas for my job once, and when I got back, they were emailing me more than a week before the timer ran out, and there was a message when I logged in. I don't see how all this could have been missed for over a week at least.